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Keeshas House
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Product Description
Keesha has found a safe place to live, and other kids gravitate to her house when they just can’t make it on their own. They are Stephie – pregnant, trying to make the right decisions for herself and those she cares about; Jason – Stephie’s boyfriend, torn between his responsibility to Stephie and the baby and the promise of a college basketball career; Dontay – in foster care while his parents are in prison, feeling unwanted both inside and outside the system; Carmen – arrested on a DUI charge, waiting in a juvenile detention center for a judge to hear her case; Harris – disowned by his father after disclosing that he’s gay, living in his car, and taking care of himself; Katie – angry at her mother’s loyalty to an abusive stepfather, losing herself in long hours of work and school.
Stretching the boundaries of traditional poetic forms – sestinas and sonnets – Helen Frost’s extraordinary debut novel for young adults weaves together the stories of these seven teenagers as they courageously struggle to hold their lives together and overcome their difficulties.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #391825 in Books
- Published on: 2007-02-22
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: .37" h x 5.88" w x 7.58" l, .31 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 116 pages
Editorial Reviews
Books in Canada
Looking for something a little different? Why not try a young adult novel in verse. Since Karen Hesse's 1997 Newbery Award-winner Out of the Dust, we've seen the growth of a considerable body of blank verse novels that explore some very important aspects of teen life including racism, suicide, homosexuality, single motherhood, literacy, eating disorders, school shootings and first love. This verse novel has an accessibility that makes it attractive to teen readers.
Helen Frost's Keesha's House focuses on a group of seven troubled teens who find refuge and safety from the devastating problems in their lives at Keesha's House. It's one of the ironies in the book that the house actually belongs not to Keesha, a troubled teen herself, but to Joe—an older man who was himself rescued by an elderly aunt and who has always tried to extend the hand of friendship to kids who need a place to stay—overnight or for a while—a kind of quiet angel of mercy who doesn't interfere and lets the teens work out their issues by themselves but in a safe place. While thematically Keesha's House explores what might be called problem teen themes—Stephie is pregnant and is afraid to tell her parents; her boyfriend, Jason, is on the fast-track to college through his high-flying as a basketball superstar; Harris is struggling to come to terms with his sexuality and has been kicked out by his parents for coming out; Dontay has been abandoned not only by his parents who are serving out prison sentences but by the foster care system which tosses him from one home to the next; Katie, afraid of her abusive and sexually threatening stepfather, and there's Carmen who must come to terms with her drinking-problem. What makes Keesha's House different from many out verse novels is Frost's exploration of different poetic forms from sonnets to sestinas which she talks about at the end of the novel. Frost is an accomplished poet and Keesha's House is an inventive first novel.
Jeffrey Canton (Books in Canada)
From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-Frost has taken the poem-story to a new level with well-crafted sestinas and sonnets, leading readers into the souls and psyches of her teen protagonists. The house in the title isn't really Keesha's; it belongs to Joe. His aunt took him in when he was 12, and now that he's an adult and the owner of the place, he is helping out kids in the same situation. Keesha needs a safe place to stay-her mother is dead; her father gets mean when he drinks, and he drinks a lot. She wants to stay in school, all these teens do, and Keesha lets them know they can stay at Joe's. There's Stephie, pregnant at 16, and terrified to tell anyone except her boyfriend. Harris's father threw him out when his son confided that he is gay. Katie's stepfather has taken to coming into her room late at night, and her mother refuses to believe her when she tells. Carmen's parents have run off, and she's been put into juvie for a DUI. Dontay is a foster kid with two parents in jail. Readers also hear from the adults in these young people's lives: teachers, parents, grandparents, and Joe. It sounds like a soap opera, but the poems that recount these stories unfold realistically. Revealing heartbreak and hope, these poems could stand alone, but work best as a story collection. Teens may read this engaging novel without even realizing they are reading poetry.
Angela J. Reynolds, Washington County Cooperative Library Services, Hillsboro, OR
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
Individual actors take on the voices of different characters to narrate chapters told from alternating viewpoints in Frost's award-winning novel-in-poems. The story revolves around a group of teens whose lives intersect through Keesha, a girl who has taken refuge with Joe, an adult who leaves his homes open to kids with nowhere else to go. It's hard to tell these vignettes are poems as the stories unfold in bits and pieces while Keesha works to organize her own life and reach out to others in need. Listeners will be able to identify each character's distinct and memorable voice. A compelling and powerful listen. A.F. 2005 Audie Award Finalist, 2005 YALSA Selection © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
